, especially if Mr. Kidd
should hint that it included a bag of diamonds.

The sloop's accommodation for passengers was neither extensive nor
luxurious. The small cabin aft was just big enough to hold Angela and
myself, and once in it, we were like rats in a hole, as, to get out, we
had to climb an almost perpendicular ladder. Kidd and Yawl were to sleep,
turn and turn about, in a sort of dog-house which they had contrived in
the bows. Ramon would roll himself in his _cobija_ and sleep anywhere.

Before going on board I made such arrangements as I hoped would insure us
against foul play. I stitched one half of the diamonds in my waist-belt;
the other half my wife hid away in her dress. Among the things brought
down from Alta Vista was an exquisite little dagger with a Damascened
blade, which I gave to Angela. I had my hunting-knife, and Ramon his
_machete_.

I laid it down as a rule from which there was to be no departure, that
Ramon and I were neither to sleep at the same time nor be in the cabin
together, and that when we had anything particular to say we should say it
in Quipai. As it happened, he knew a little English; I had taught my wife
my mother-tongue, and Ramon, by dint of hearing it spoken, and with a
little instruction from me and from her, had become so far proficient in
the language that he could understand the greater part of what was said.
This, however, was not known to Kidd and Yawl; I told him not to let them
know; but whenever opportunity occurred to listen to their conversation,
and report it to me. I thought that if they meditated evil against us I
might in this way obtain timely information of their designs; and I
considered that, in the circumstances (our lives being, as I believed, in
jeopardy), the expedient was quite justifiable.

We sailed at sunset and got well away, and the clear sky and resplendent
stars, the calm sea and the fair soft wind augured well for a prosperous
voyage. Yet my heart was sad and my spirits were low. The parting with our
poor Indians had been very trying, and I could not help asking myself
whether I had acted quite rightly in deserting them, whether it would not
have been nobler (though perhaps not so worldly wise) to throw in my lot
with theirs and try to recreate the oasis, as Angela had suggested. I also
doubted whether I was acting the part of a prudent man in embarking my
wife, my fortune, and myself on a wretched little sloop (which would
probably founder in